M6 pistol
The M6 is a family of UNSC-made pistols operating on the short recoil principle manufactured by Misriah Armoury. The M6 fires the 12.7x40mm, a semi-armour-piercing round that gives the pistol superior stopping power but without the risk of over-penetration. M6 pistols are remarkably large and overpowered to an extent, appearing to be redolent of a cross between a pistol or a rifle in size. In addition to power, the M6 line of weaponry is designed to be rugged and reliable, and pistols are able to remain operational after long periods without cleaning, Slipspace transitions, high-g aerial manoeuvres, and excessive fouling of parts by foreign matter. Because of this durability, the M6 has remained the UNSCDF's service pistol for almost 160 years, and it sees significant use among law enforcement agencies and the militaries of other powers. History First adopted in 2412, the M6 series of pistol was first introduced in an effort to bring the weapons of the various branches of the UNSCDF into sync. A variety of weapons were tested, with Misriah Armoury's application, the M6 pistol, being the most rugged and reliable, surviving exposure to temperatures ranging from -140 to 160 degrees Celcius, being soaked in salt water, being dropped repeatedly on concrete, and being buried in sand, mud and snow. Additionally, the M6 proved a MRBF (mean rounds before failure) of 85,000 rounds. That number is often touted as the equivalent to seven or eight times the pistol's service life. The Insurrection, the War of Vengeance, and both the Great Wars, which featured frequent urban and room-to-room combat, saw soldiers and Marines relying even more heavily on their pistols, with the M6 retaining the same durability and reliability it had over a century previously. Design The M6 operates on the short recoil principle; the trigger needs to be pulled after every shot for the next round to be fired. Because it is semi-automatic, the gun will cock itself after every shot due to recoil and will continue to do so until the magazine is empty. The gases from rounds fired force the slide, located on the top of the gun, backward. The slide not only absorbs the force of the gases but it also uses the force to eject spent casings out of the ejection port and load new rounds into the chamber. Before the first round can be fired, it must be chambered by pulling the slide back completely and letting it launch forward, chambering a round on the way. The extremely high recoil created by firing the rounds is reduced by an advanced articulated mechanism which allows the block and bolt to recoil off-axis into a recess behind the weapon's magazine well, as well as by the barrel being in line with the shooter's hand, which reduces felt recoil and muzzle climb by eliminating the distance between the shooter's hand and the bore axis. This, the sheer weight of the firearm, the use of self-molding plastasteel grips, the forward balance, and barrel porting offset recoil by nearly 70%. The barrel is threaded, allowing it to accept suppressors, and most pistol variants carry one or two sets of Picatinny Combat Attachment Points for the attachment of optics or aiming modules. A self-molding plastasteel grip provides more comfort while firing. The pistol carries adjustable, concealable iron sights. To further reduce recoil, the barrel is ported. Porting involves creating ports or holes that are precision-drilled into the forward part of the barrel and slide. These holes are designed to divert a portion of the gases expelled prior to the departure of the bullet in the direction that reduces the tendency of the firearm to flip upwards. The concept applies Newton's third law: the exhaust directed upward causes a reciprocal force downward. The bore and chamber are plated with chromium, a feature usually seen only in assault rifles. This plating dramatically increases the life of these parts by resisting corrosion and wear. Due to this, and the abundant use of titanium in the weapon's design, the weapon requires zero cleaning or lubrication, though Misriah states that cleaning is required after 10,000 rounds. These features, as well as generous clearances between moving parts allow the M6 to endure large amounts of foreign matter and fouling without failing to cycle. The M6 features multiple internal safeties including a trigger block, that prevents the trigger from moving without being pulled, and a circuit breaker that prevents the electronic firing system from conducting electricity when engaged. The M6 also has an ambidextrous external safety lever allowing both left and right handed people to comfortably engage the safety mechanism. Rounds are electronically-fired, preventing jams or malfunctions caused by breaking firing pins. M6 series handguns are issued in three different finishes: hard chrome, black polymer, and electroless nickel. All M6 pistols feature a large trigger guard, which helps prevent the user from dropping it. The M6 fires the 12.7x40mm round, giving it incredible stopping power and the ability to pierce body armour, though it does have a tendency to drop casings on the wielder's foot, leading some UNSC personnel to favour the M7/Caseless Submachine Gun. Two variants of ammunition are available; the most-often-issued round is the M225 Semi-Armour-Piercing High-Explosive cartridge. The round combines both an armour-piercing capability and a high explosive effect. The initial impact ignites a small quantity of incendiary material in the tip, triggering the detonation of the HE charge, thus blasting a path through the armoured target for the penetrator. The remaining element of the round is the tungsten penetrator. This has a large amount of kinetic energy and will penetrate the now-unarmoured target through the path created by the explosive. A pre-cut cross on the tip of the penetrator makes the bullet expand inside the body, increasing its diameter to limit penetration and produce a larger diameter wound. The triggering of the explosive charge is dependent upon the resistance of the target. If the target offers little resistance then the lack of frictional heating will prevent the incendiary from igniting and the high explosive from detonating, preventing collateral damage. A rarer type of ammunition is the M228 Semi-Armour-Piercing High-Penetration cartridge, which allows for superior armour penetration, but without the risk of overpenetration and injuring civilians. The bullet is jacketed with copper-coated titanium and tipped and cored with tungsten. Upon striking body armour, the jacket penetrates before deforming, and will temporarily help maintain the shape of the projectile so that it has a better chance of penetration. A second impact against bone or solid muscle mass inside the target's body will complete the jacket's rupture, at which point the projectile mushrooms and fragments into smaller pieces, causing a large number of wound channels and maximising damage. All these ammunition types are available in red, green, blue, or infrared tracers, which feature a delay element to prevent the filler from igniting until it is some distance away from the shooter, allowing him to be better concealed. Variants A great many variants of the M6 were produced, all of which share modular parts; The M6A Sidearm was a black polymer developed as the first model issued to the UNSCDF, however it has mostly been replaced in the Defence Force and now sees dwindling use in civilian police forces. The M6B, an improved variant, came with a hard chrome finish and featured a single PCAP system for the attachment of optics. In 2525, with the enactment of the SPARTAN-II Program, the UNSCDF commissioned Misriah to develop a newer pistol that could easily be used by soldiers wearing MJOLNIR armour. The result was the M6C Personal Defence Weapon System, which is nearly 117% larger than the older models, but still sharing parts commonality. With a black polymer finish and double-action trigger, manufacturing time constraints meant that the M6C lacked a PCAP system, but the threaded barrel means that it can accept the UNSCDF's blocky M6S Suppressor, which features an integral VnSLS/V 6E 4x smart-link scope, and its own PCAP system, allowing a secondary aiming module to be attached. The M6S Suppressor and aiming module are both components of the UNSC Special Warfare Command's M6C/SOCOM special forces pistol variant. The M6C remains the standard sidearm of the UNSC Navy, and shares the role of Marine Corps sidearm with the D and G variants. The M6D PDWS was an improvement on the M6C, which featured its own PCAP system, allowing it to carry optics such as the KFA-2 2x scope. It was followed by the electroless nickel-finished, standard-sized M6E and F sidearms, the latter of which features a PCAP system. These were followed by the M6G PDWS, an improved up-sized pistol featuring two PCAP systems, but with a shallower eight-round magazine. It can easily be converted into an M6J Carbine with the addition of a carbine-length barrel, a blowback-operated bolt, and a stock that attaches to the pistol frame. These three weapons are the current sidearms of the UNSC Army. The G model was followed by the similar M6H pistol, which featured a larger magazine of twelve rounds. The M6I model is a machine pistol with a detachable shoulder stock. It has a lever-type fire-control selector switch, installed on the serrated portion of the rear left side of the slide. With the selector lever in the bottom position, the pistol will shoot fully-automatic, and with the selector lever in the top position, the pistol will fire semi-automatically. The firearm is typically used with an extended 33-round capacity magazine, although other magazines from the M6 will also function, with available capacities of 12 or 17 rounds. The pistol is ported to reduced muzzle rise; it has a keyhole opening cut into the forward portion of the slide. The keyhole opening provides an area to allow the four, progressively larger (from back to front) compensator cuts machined into the barrel to vent the propellant gases upwards, affording more control over the rapid-firing machine pistol. The compensator cuts start about halfway back on the top of the barrel. The two rear cuts are narrower than the two front cuts. The slide is also hollowed, or dished-out, in a rectangular pattern between the rear of the ejection port and the rear sight. The rate of fire in fully automatic mode is approximately 1,100–1,200 rounds per minute. This was followed in 2542 with the UNSC Army's M6J Carbine, which features a long, 355mm barrel with a detachable shoulder stock, a thirty-round casket magazine, and four sets of Picatinny Combat Attachment Points. It features semi-automatic and burst firing. An M6G can easily be converted into an M6J with the addition of a carbine-length barrel, a blowback-operated bolt, and a stock that attaches to the pistol frame. Last to be developed was the M6K Handgun, a small, six-round "undercover" variant developed for use by police forces. Users *United Nations Space Command *Unggoy Star Empire *Various New Covenant successor states See Also *M6J Carbine Category:Canon Expansions Category:War of Vengeance Category:Labyrinth Category:UNSCDF infantry weapons Category:M6 series